[CAN WE REALLY HAVE IT ALL?]

Question:

Please believe me that any frustration expressed in this question is not meant to be a personal challenge to Mr. Patent. I am totally entranced by his story of transformation from 50-year-old lawyer to writer and facilitator of his wonderful ideas. His books have been a great comfort and inspiration, although I have to confess that, finally, even after reading the books several times, I remain frustrated and disappointed. (I am a 53-year-old lawyer who is very near to finally giving up hope that life can be other than a constant struggle to keep from despising and being terrified by my profession, which seems to have me trapped. Life is a chronic worry about checking account balances, a son who seems lost in space and very clearly (and accurately) blames my poor adult example, and a wife who long ago seems to have written me off as the lazy loser that I have finally agreed with her that I must be. (What kind of self-motivated, self-respecting lawyer would never have earned more than $50,000 a year?)

In most of the questions and answers in this forum the pattern is predictably similar: Someone is experiencing a tribulation of some kind: relationship problems, money problems, work problems, all of the above, or whatever. They bought "You Can Have It All," other of Mr. Patent's books, or similar books, and believed, after reading the book(s), that they could, indeed, Have It All: including some kind of relief or solution to their problem.

The response to their question or problem, in this forum, is almost always the same: We are creating or have created these circumstances or problems to "hide our power." (Why would we, wondrous God-beings that we are, do such a goofy thing? Well, in order to be a human being, it turns out we had to hide our Power somewhere.)

But, there is the Hint that we can release this Power, (and still remain in human form), by "opening" the belief where we hid the Power. For us mere mortals, or at least this mere mortal, this Hint tends to be translated into: We Can Solve Our Problems and Have It All, whatever these problems are and whatever "It" is, because there is a way to Open, or Get, or Have, "The Power."

Yet, examples of folks who have actually "opened" their beliefs and released "The Power," and used it to solve their money, relationship, work, or whatever problems, are few and far between. Most of the examples of actually using The Power in the books I have read that are similar to Mr. Patent's, tend to be of the "finding a parking space" variety. There are precious few stories of people experiencing timely solutions to their every day major problems.

Even Mr. Patent's wonderfully readable book, The Journey, to which writers to this forum are usually referred, has few real life examples of "opening" or "releasing" our previously hidden Power and using The Power to solve the everyday, common problems so many people struggle with.

Frankly, it all seems to boil down to this: To be born human, you had to hide your God power. So, get used to it! But, there are promises, or at least intimations, that the reader can find a way to "open" his or her beliefs and "release" the power, by reading or rereading The Journey.

Like many hopeful ones, I am accustomed to buying books or reading articles that tell me "How To" do something that will change the experience of my life: Lower my mortgage payments and credit card debt, increase the speed of my Internet Connection, lose weight, increase my net worth, whatever. Do This, That Will Happen. I can't find the "do this, that will happen" part of the book, The Journey. "Opening" the place I have "hidden my Power" still remains a mysterious process and an elusive daydream. Does Mr. Patent, or anybody else he knows, really know "How to Do It?"

Maybe we just have to buck up and finally face up to the apparent reality that whatever "Power" the God part of us may have, as long as we are human, The Power will, by definition, remain hidden. Can we really "Have It All," or is "having it all" reserved for some state we may attain when we have left this life and are no longer required to hide our Power in order to remain human?

Answer:

Thank you for your question. You have graciously offered your situation that, although different in specific details, is still typical of what many people are experiencing, and answers they are looking for.

Your point of reference is "having it all." And you define "all" as a range of things from better quality relationships to more money in the bank. In other words, you look at your current life and want to make it better.

What you are trying to improve is something you created, intentionally: first, as a hiding place for your power so that you could stay in the human; second, so that you could have the precise experiences you have described.

You are not lazy or incompetent. You are not powerless or of limited means. Quite the contrary, you have used the fullness of your power, creativity and ingenuity to bring into being the very circumstances you are complaining about. And, right there in the situations you are complaining about is the power you have used to make the situations seem real. In other words, the situations that you find so disagreeable are the disguises for your power.

The life you are describing is something you made up. That life seems real only because you, as the God Presence, are so powerful, you can make an illusion seem real.

You ask, "Why would I do such a goofy thing?" Consider this. You are living in a totally idyllic setting. All is harmonious, beautiful, peaceful and abundant. For the fun of it, you decide to explore a life opposite to your accustomed experience.

Because you are so powerful, you require a "reality" so extreme that it will capture your full attention. You have to admit that you accomplished this goal.

Maintaining this made-up "reality" is no small feat. You have developed very clever ruses to keep yourself away from the places you hid your power.

Let's go back over your question and look at it in terms of my comments so far. In the preamble to your question, you state that you are entranced by my story of transformation, and have received great comfort and inspiration from my books and other similar ones.

What you are saying is that the truth of what you have read resonates within you yet you do not see that truth in evidence in your life. The missing piece is the intentional hiding of the truth, the power, and the abundance that is your natural and true state. Your response to this piece, in your question, is to ask for the "how to" find the hiding places and reclaim the power.

You are correct in your observation that the "how to" is not included. This is because the process for opening to our power can be explained in writing, but the explanation does not afford the reader the actual experience of opening. The explanation is the preparation for the actual experience.

Remember, hiding and keeping hidden the Power of the God Presence that you are has required all your ingenuity, creativity, inspiration, patience and perseverance. You have intentionally created the equivalent of a very complicated maze.

Can you appreciate what a major undertaking this hiding process is? Can you sense how strong your commitment has to be to replace the truth with an illusion and then make the illusion seem totally real for an extended time? Can you feel the power -- your power -- that you have focused incessantly to make limitation seem real. Can you appreciate that what seems like power outside of you -- government, economic conditions, tyrants and diseases -- are your power made to seem like it is outside of you?

Commitment and appreciation go together. We do not commit to something until we appreciate the extent of the gift we are giving ourselves in making the commitment. Your appreciation for what it has taken to create the circumstances you are complaining about is much greater than you are aware of.

You are wearing your self-deprecation as a badge of honor. This is akin to a rock star proudly espousing his "unsavory" past.

You give yourself the gift of reclaiming your power when your appreciation for your true Self exceeds your appreciation for your depreciated self.

Everything you experience is your marvelous creation. Self-deprecation is a remarkable creation. In your attempt to devalue yourself by judging your creation, you are being very clever in keeping the creation alive.

Again, can you see how brilliant you are? That brilliance is your Infinite Intelligence and It is guiding you at all times. You are always having the perfect experience. And, one experience is not "better" than another: opening to the fullness of your power is not better than keeping the power hidden.

As to the question whether there are people who have opened to the fullness of their power and recognize that they are the creators of their lives, the answer is yes.

Enter the spiritual coach: someone who has opened to the power and enjoys supporting others in that opening. One of the reasons the spiritual coach is able to provide this level of support is that he/she has no emotional attachment to the issues being faced by the person being coached

As a lawyer, you know that you cannot represent yourself in a legal matter as effectively as a lawyer who has no emotional attachment to the issues being evaluated.

In the spiritual coaching process, the client's role is to be free to experience his disguises as real; the coach's role is to look at these experiences as information as to where and how the client has hidden his/her power.

The spiritual coach sees the client in the fullness of his/her power. The client uses the power coming from the coach as a reference point -- a mirroring of his/her own power. With that reference point, the client goes into his/her disguises and retrieves the energy (power) hidden there.

There is a factor to be aware of: disguises are loaded with discomfort to make sure that we stay away from them. When the client approaches the disguises, he/she has trained him/herself to back off. If you read through your question, you will find that it is filled with the disguises you have created -- limited ability to create money, frustration, failure, embarrassment, helplessness and a lot of self-deprecation.

What brings the client and the coach together? The answer is an inner motivation felt by the client that draws the coach to him/her. What keeps the client motivated to go into disguises that seem so uncomfortable they are, at times, painful just to contemplate? The answer is an appreciation for him/herself that is experienced as a willingness to do whatever it takes to open to the fullness of his/her power.

We are all the Power and Presence of God, in full abundance and joyfulness, right here and right now. Whatever seems otherwise is a disguise we have created. When the truth of this statement feels compelling to you, you know you are ready to do whatever it takes to have this be your reality in the human.

 
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